On the first day of the seventh month (the month called Tishrei), there is a special celebration called Yom Teruah (or as it is more commonly known as Rosh Hashanah). Yom Teruah is often translated in our English Bibles as the Feast of Trumpets. This year, Yom Teruah begins at sundown on Sunday, September 9 and ends at sundown on Monday, September 10.
Teruah means a massive shout, either by a crowd or by a horn. For example, the walls of Jericho came tumbling down when the people "raised a mighty shout (teruah gedolah)" (Joshua 1:20). The shout of the people is a form of prayer and appears many time in the Psalms. For example, "All you people clap your hands, raise a joyous shout (teruah) to God" (Psalm 42:7). The second meaning of teruah is a shofar (trumpet) blast. A blast of the shofar was often heard during the Israelites travels in the desert to let them know that it was time to move on. ("When you blow an alarm (teruah), the camps that are on the east side shall set out" Numbers 10:5.)
Both of the meanings for the word teruah, supplicatory shouting and the sounding of the shofar, unite in Yom Teruah. It is a day of the blowing of the shofar and a day of prayer. The feeling of yearning exemplified in the shofar's ululations are meant to inspire us to long to connect to God in a way that is beyond what words can describe.
Yom Teruah is one of the seven moedim (appointed times) described by God in the Torah. (The other six moedim are Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, Pentecost, Atonement and Tabernacles.) There are three in particular (Unleavened Bread, Pentecost and Tabernacles) which are classified as feast days. When the temple is standing, God commands His people to come to Jerusalem to the temple to celebrate these feasts. All feast days are moedim; however, not all moedim are feast days. (Although Yom Teruah is a moedim, it is not classified as a feast day.)
Yom Teruah is important for several reasons. First, it commemorates the end of the agricultural year. In Israel, the first plantings begin in October/November. The first crops to be harvested is barley in March/April, followed by the wheat harvest in May/June and the fruit harvest in August/September. Yom Teruah also marks the end of the festival year. The first festival (Passover) is celebrated in March/April and is followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost in May/June. Yom Teruah is the start of the fall holidays. Ten days after Yom Teruah, is the Day of Atonement, and five days later begins the Feast of Tabernacles.
The blowing of the trumpets on Yom Teruah (the first day of the month) heralds a solemn time of preparation for the Day Atonement, which occurs on the tenth of the month. This preparation time is called "Ten Days of Repentance" or the "Days of Awe" (Yomim Noraim). The trumpet sound is an alarm and can be understood as a call to introspection and repentance. The trumpet sound signals that the Day of Atonement is near.
When is God near? He is near during the Days of Awe. Yom Teruah is truly a day to draw near to God. Isaiah speaks of us drawing near to God:
Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David. Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you will call a nation you do not know, and a nation which knows you not will run to you, because the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you. Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the LORD, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:1-7)
Yom Teruah in Scripture
Leviticus 23 is a good place to start in Scripture regarding the festival details of Yom Teruah. Chapter 23 describes all God's moedim. Concerning Yom Teruah, Scripture says the following:
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel, saying, 'In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with a blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the LORD."' (Leviticus 23:23-24)
Additional details about Yom Teruah are given in the Book of Numbers:
On the first day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a day for you to blow the trumpets, and you shall offer a burnt offering, for a pleasing aroma to the LORD: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish; also their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the ram, and one tenth for each of the seven lambs; with one male goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you; besides the burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offering, according to the rule for them, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD. (Numbers 29:1-6)
Yom Teruah is also very special in that it is the only festival which occurs on the first day of the month. The start of each month on the Jewish calendar coincides with the new moon. On the new moon, trumpets are blown.
On the day of your gladness, and at your appointed feast and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over your sacrifices of your peace offerings. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I am the LORD your God. (Number 10:10)
Moreover, Yom Teruah can occur on any day of the week including Shabbat. Thus it has a unique status among all the festivals in that it is the only festival in which all the following sacrifices can be made.
1. The daily offerings
2. The Shabbat offerings
3. The new moon offerings
4. The festival offerings
Outside the instructions for the Levites, there is little else mentioned for the observance of Yom Teruah. We are to rest and make a loud noise...and that's it!
Foreshadowing of the Messiah
Yom Teruah, along with the other six moedim, foreshadow certain aspects of the ministry of the Messiah. The prophets link the blowing of the trumpets to the future Day of Judgment.
Blow the trumpet in Zion: sound the alarm on My holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand. (Joel 2:1)
Near is the great day of the LORD, near and coming very quickly; listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cried out bitterly. A day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements. (Zephaniah 1:14, 16)
In the New Testament, we see that the LORD'S Second Coming will be accompanied by the sound of a trumpet.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
When the Messiah comes, there will be a shout and the blowing of a trumpet. There will be great joy for those who believe. Messiah will come for judgment and to declare war.
Immediately after the tribulation of those day the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)
Each of the judgments in Revelation 8-9 is also signaled by a trumpet. Just as the shofar calls us to return and make ourselves ready for the Day of Atonement, so will the "trump of God" call us to heaven and warn the world of coming judgment.
In the twinkling of an eye
Paul writes to the Corinthian church, one of the most quoted passages in the New Testament. Paul gives us a glimpse into the last days in which we will be changed at the sounding of the last trumpet. Many folks unfamiliar with the feasts of the LORD do not realize that the sounding of the "last trumpet" is a Hebraic expression. During Yom Teruah, the shofar (trumpet) is sounded 100 times. The 100th trumpet blast is called the last trumpet. Thus, when Paul refers to the "last trumpet" we can assume he is speaking about events which will occur on Yom Teruah.
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
A brief side note:
When Israel left Egypt, they left in haste. The Torah explains the ritual of eating unleavened bread at Passover as a result of the abrupt departure from Egypt. Their bread dough did not have time to rise before they baked it.
You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 16:3)
A collection of Jewish writing on Exodus entitled Mechilta says that God hastened their departure because when the appointed time for redemption comes, the Almighty does not hold back matters for even "the twinkling of an eye". The idiomatic term "twinkling of an eye", i.e., the blink of an eye, appears frequently in rabbinic material called Pesikta Rabbati which states that repentance takes effect "as in the twinkling of an eye".
How long does it take to repent? According to the Jewish sages, it takes only the twinkling of an eye, the same amount of time it took for Israel to leave Egypt once the time appointed for redemption arrived. Just as Israel went from bondage to freedom in the blink of an eye, repentance and faith in Messiah transfers us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light instantaneously. When a person confesses Jesus and trusts in Him for the forgiveness of sins, he is immediately forgiven and set free from bondage to the adversary. In the blink of an eye, he becomes a free man.
Likewise, in the time to come, the great Messianic redemption will also happen instantly, in the blink of an eye: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52).
In Summary
Yom Teruah is the first appointed time (or moed) that occurs in the fall of the year. There is a Biblical connection to a reminder of calling us back to the Word or God, to repentance (teshuva). It is a day that we rest, and a day in which we make a loud noise. A loud noise can be a shout, but it is also associated with a shofar or the blowing of a trumpet. The loud noise is correlated with joy and praise back to our Creator, a call or start of war and an alarm to "wake us up" back into repentance. Prophetically, Yom Teruah most likely is related to out Messiah's return, in which we are called to be ready in repentance, experience joy of His return, give praise back to our Creator and the war/judgment to the nations by our Messiah may begin. Yom Teruah is often called Rosh Hashanah by Jewish tradition.
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